GrumpyOldMan said:
My understanding of the Perrin/Stafford collaboration is that Mr Stafford was responsible for Glorantha and Messrs Perrin & Turney for the original rules, but yes Greg Stafford is worthy of a mention too. Certainly, the latest RuneQuest is closer to the original than the current DnD is to it's predecessors.
There was a big dust up on the Mongoose forums and I'm not 100% sure of how the following ties together (the original thread was removed because it got nasty). The following is what I remember:
1) Steve Perrin was a playtester
2) There was some conflict about some suggestions Steve made.
3) Steve quit playtesting about this time.
4) Mongoose sent him papers to have his name included, but they never got them back.
5) Greg Stafford didn't press to have his name included (or his own). [This comment was along the lines of "Greg was involved in the negotiations and the issue of crediting Steve Perrin didn't come up]
6) Steve was upset about his name not being included, but things seem fine now (a search of the RPG.net forums can probably return these comments).
These "facts" were all brought out at some time by the involved parties. I don't know there was any connection necessarily. For example, Steve may have just stopped playtseting because he got busy. I don't remember if he commented specifically.
Speculations I have read from those who were discussing the missing pos:
1) Mongoose's position is they wrote the rules and those credited are the ones who are responsible for the game. References were made to the "rules can't be copyrighted" argument that has been discussed here lately (please don't drag this up again, I just bring it in for context).
2) Mongoose may be worried about legal issues from crediting him. Steve was the primary person responsible for the RQ rules which formed the basis of "Basic Roleplaying" and crediting him may open some legal complications.
I remember someone from Mongoose stating that Matthew Sprange was credited because he wrote the rules, but other than that I don't have any references to comments stating the above. Searching the RPG.net forums might find better references.
Steve's final word on the issue was posted on the
Glorantha Digest:
Speaking of Mongoose, for those of you who have not been following the
discussion on RPGNet, Matthew and I have come to an agreement on paying me
for the work I put in and my invoice has been submitted. I also gave him
what I thought would be proper accreditation for the original concepts of
the rules, but have no idea if he will use it.
So that is settling fairly peacefully.
If any of you have not seen what I did for the original magic rules concept,
let me know privately and I'll send you a copy. Looking at it now, about a
year after I first submitted it, I can see a lot that needed to change (not
necessarily to what Mongoose ended up using) but I'm not getting paid to
change it, so you'll have to take it as submitted.
